Page 50-51, the last paragraph starting with, “She tried to think of the consequences…” ending on page 51.

This passage, while less confusing than others, still required me to reread it several times in order to even mildly understand what Djuna Barnes is saying. While reading it, I understood it at first as Robin not wanting to have a child, specifically a male child and then she goes off and talks about women she has “connected” with. The language is particularly what I have trouble with, because the sentences within Nightwood are incredibly long and I lose whatever was initially said. This passage exemplifies this, especially in the second half of it when Robin is praying. I still do not know really what she prayed for. On second glance–and with the help of the summary on the back of the book– I start to see Robin explore her sexuality and perhaps understand her prayer as asking for sexual (?) liberation from her husband and the child she was forced to bear. In this passage, she seems to start to recognize that she has always condemned men and found favor in women, “…she had come to connect with women…”(Barnes 51). I find that Barnes’ style is so particular because although the point of view is in third person, the reader still gets this “stream of consciousness” style, where the character rambles on with their thoughts. I think this is where I have difficulty, since as the reader, we aren’t allowed in the head of the characters, but we still get so much information and insight to who they are from the text. We are almost left in the perpetual state of too much information, but at the same time not enough.